Free GP care for all will come at a price

POLITICIANS tend to play fast and loose with promises coming up to election time. Any party manifesto that mentions the word ‘free’ is likely to be a winner with the voters. So it was in 2011 when free GP care for all was promised and then worked into the programme for government between Fine Gael and Labour.

It hasn’t happened yet, of course, and Ireland remains the only Western European country without universal GP coverage. That prospect came back into the public arena in May with the publication of the ‘Sláintecare’ report which had all-party backing.

In that report, the Oireachtas Future of Health Care Committee put forward a radical plan to reform our health services over a 10-year period, but at a huge cost. One recommendation was to extend GP care to an extra 500,000 patients annually.

Yesterday, the committee was told of some of the obstacles standing in the way of the early implementation of this specific recommendation. Serious concerns were raised by organisations representing GPs. ‘Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they’ will be the response of many to the claims by groups that have a vested interest in negotiating the best possible deal for their members.

But they do have valid concerns. The political decision to give free GP care to all aged under six years brought in 240,000 additional patients, with huge numbers using the more expensive out-of-hours service to suit parents.

Taking in half-a-million more patients annually will lead to even longer waiting lists in general practice as demand will outstrip capacity, unless there are additional supports for infrastructure and practice staff such as nurses. Many practices will need to physically expand to cope with the additional workload and create capacity.

It is a socially desirable objective to extend the free GP service to other age groups but this time the politicians should hit the ‘pause’ button and work out the detailed implications of doing so first.